Inplainsight

Expert on domestic abuse exposes myths surrounding male violence that allow men to terrorise women again and again as we send her book to MSPS and Scotland’s most senior law officers

He lost control, people say after another woman is killed. He just snapped, they say after another wife, partner, or girlfriend dies because of male violence.

According to Professor Jane Monckton Smith, however, he didn’t lose control, he didn’t just snap and, in a life-saving book, she explains why there are patterns of escalating domestic abuse that repeat again and again and, often, tragically, end in death.

A woman is killed by her partner or ex every four days in the UK but the domestic homicide expert fears there may be many more with suspicious deaths going uninvestigated because of basic misunderstandings of the forces at play in domestic violence and how violent and abusive men cycle through identifiable and escalating stages of control and coercion.

The idea that previously ordinary men suddenly commit terrible violence is widespread but wrong, says Monckton Smith. She believes many domestic abusers are hiding in plain sight and more could be identified and stopped with better awareness and understanding of their personalities and behaviour.

Every year for the last five years, 13 women have been killed in Scotland with around half of those recognised as victims of previous abuse but Monckton Smith, one of the UK’S leading experts in domestic violence, says up to 80 other deaths, often said to be suicide, may be linked to domestic abuse.

The criminologist, a former police officer turned academic, said: “All sudden unexpected deaths or suicides where there is a history of domestic abuse should be investigated as potential murder until proved otherwise.

“Based on the evidence I’ve already seen by investigating such cases up and down the country, there are potentially hundreds of missed homicides every year.”

She says manipulative abusers are not only getting away with murder but are also driving victims to take their own lives in what she described as a scandal of “hidden homicides”.

Her acclaimed book, In Control: Dangerous Relationships And How They End In Murder, details eight stages of coercive behaviour leading, ultimately, to homicide or suicide and how police and prosecutors must be better informed to ensure clear patterns of behaviour are not missed and ensure vulnerable women do not remain at risk.

This week, publisher Bloomsbury, in partnership with The Sunday Post, will send a copy of the book to every MSP and Scotland’s most senior law officers, the Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain, and Solicitor General Ruth Charteris. They have promised to improve conviction rates for crimes of male violence while reviewing how victims are treated in Scotland’s justice system.

We revealed last year how 7,000 cases of domestic violence were stalled in the country’s log-jammed courts and last week it emerged women were dropping cases because of the delays in seeing